He is a loner. It’s not like he was not in serious relationships. Off course he was. But his relationships were like sudden jolts… occasional potholes on otherwise smooth ride. Besides Anita, who he’d dated for eight years and that was eight years ago. A lot of things changed after that. Like… his dating rules. Basic rule of dating - “If you do not get it on the third date, there ain’t gonna be a fourth date!” And he’d get ‘it’… virtually every time, with every woman. “Life is good” he’d brag with his friends back home, “changing women more often than engine oil ain’t bad huh?” And there comes Heather, a brunette on her mid 20’s, who he’d meet during a football game. She was friend to his friends. Couple hiking and biking and several trips down to lake fishing with his friends and he got close to her one small step at a time. No sex. But again he was not formally dating her. And finally one day he asked her out. Wine and dine, beer at the pub and tequila at club, they had a blast. One thing leading another next he knew it was three in the morning and they were on his couch making out. Heather mixed up with all the goodies he drank that night turned out to be majestic. He’d never had such a wonderful sex on his entire life. Saturday morning, he woke up first, elated with his majestic sex the other night, a huge grin on his face from ear to ear; he brought two cups of coffee from Starbucks and woke her up. “That was my first time” she goes. “Yeah me too” he replied. It was not the first time a girl said that to him and he damn knew how to answer that. “No kidding! You are my first one” “Do you wanna have a last one too?” he goes. She gathered herself up, he watched her getting dressed. “Life is goooooood” he says out loud. She chuckles. Six months later, Heather lives with him, well virtually, she still has her apartment, where she goes like two times a week. To collect her mails and to pay her rent. Though sex is still very good, better than with lot many women he had, but he just misses his single days. As the saying goes “You don’t miss something you already have.” “You don’t live your life to have sex, sex though necessary is not the most important thing in our life” he was chatting with his long time buddy online. “I was the one who told you that dude” he fired back “don’t you give me my own lines.” “gtg” he concludes his chat with his friend, as if he was running late on something. And just like that he was like “Heather…” “Yeah what’s up?” “You know what? its not working” “I know the DVD burner is screwed up, you can still burn it on CD, what is it? Last week’s photos?” she certainly has no clue. He looked at her carefully, he knows she loves him, she told him several times, he never said anything. Flash back eight years and he still remembers how much he loved Anita. He was crazy about her. Eight years of relationship and out of nowhere how she came and told him she was going to be engaged with a guy 10 years older than her in a week, he was shattered. How that relationship took a good part of him. He suddenly realized how much he was hurt when Anita broke up with him. He also realized that he is shallow, little too afraid of commitments, scared what if things don’t work out as before. “What?” asks Heather, little surprised. He comes back to reality, still staring at her. He stands up, walks close to her and says “You are the most amazing thing ever happened to me… and I am awfully grateful to god for bringing us together” And he starts kissing her all over. “Life is goooooood” she says. They both laugh.